The two gladiators enter; Shanna Romm from the east and Calathra from the west, as directions are assigned in this hall between worlds. As the crowd cheers, Shanna reads draws a scroll from a pocket of her robes and incants it, releasing some unknown magic into herself. Calathra, serpent coiled about her throat, mutters words of sorcery to create a protective shield around herself. She stares empty-eyed at the robed monk-- "I am already dead," she hisses. "What more can you do to me?" Shanna Romm, unfazed, responds by flipping and tumbling her way along the edge of the arena, drawing further cheers from the spectators. "It's Hamma time!" she calls. Calathra replies with silence.

Ivan Zagad, the lizard-man, presides overhead. His forked tongue flicks in and out hungrily. He whispers, "Monk and follower of Sssaint Cuthbert, halfling warrior-mage and worshipper of Osiris, their blood shall be sspilt for your pleasure. . ."

Shanna quickly rises, reading from a scroll and raising one hand in supplication to Saint Cuthbert. She lowers the hand, glowing with a pale light, and points at Calathra.. The halfling stumbles backwards as if struck; but in a moment she shakes her head, as if denying her foe's magic, and strides forward again. She chants words of power, seeming to grow stronger and more deadly as she walks. The eyes of her serpent flash as emerald orbs.

The blue-eyed monk intones another prayer to her god, and she, like her enemy, seems imbued with power. Now she steps back to the grey stone wall and grasps it with feet and hands. Like a great, four-legged spider, she scuttles up the wall. In a moment she swings over the crest of it and stands; a sling is in her hand. With a cry, she lets loose one of the flaming stones. It hurtles at Calathra's head but glances off an unseen barrier; it falls to the ground and explodes in a flash of smoke and fire, rending the floor of the arena.

Calathra replies by raising her sling and letting fly a bullet of her own. It hits Shanna in the stomach, and she must grip the wall-top tightly to stop herself from falling back into the stands. Calathra walks onward, closing steadily on her foe with a sickle in one hand and a sling in the other. She shouts a battle-call to Osiris and lets loose another stone that glances off Shanna's shoulder. The last two of the monk's enchanted stones explode against Calathra's shield, with no effect.

Shanna Romm growls in frustration and leaps from the wall. She lands running and flies at Calathra before the halfling can hurl another stone. Her hands at feet lash out at Calathra in a beautiful, deadly dance; but still, each of her blows is cast aside by mystic protections around the halfling. Calathra raises sickle and dagger and lashes at her foe.

For a minute, both are locked in combat without finding advantage. Then, unseen by Shanna Romm, the viper uncoils from its master's neck and leaps at her with fangs gleaming. She falls back with a scream of pain and a hand to her arm; she sags, her fiery eyes cool. Seeing her weakness, Calathra screams in anger; in her berserker rage, she charges in with sickle and dagger. The monk's robes are bloodstained and tattered when she manages to leap back from the assault, spinning out of reach of the halfling's weapons.

Though she seems upon the brink of death, Shanna shakes her head and snarls as if refusing defeat. She climbs to the safety of the wall a few yards ahead of Calathra and murmurs a prayer to Cuthbert. Her body is enveloped in a white healing flame as she chants; when it fades, the worst of her wounds are gone. She ignores a new round of sling-shots from Calathra-- one glances off her side-- and draws from a pouch at her side a third scroll. Yitak forukoss zhadim! she shouts. And the air around her thickens into silver mist, hiding her from the sight of her foe. Calling wild challenges, Calathra charges into the fog.

The seconds lengthen unchanging. Only the clash of metal on stone can be heard. Finally Calathra steps out of the mist, frustrated and rageworn, and collapses exhausted to the ground. Her serpent slithers along the stone to join with her. A moment after Shanna Romm leaps into the view of the audience, a javelin in each hand. The mist fades in seconds as if blown by a strong breeze, though no wind ever comes to this place.

Wearily, Calathra stands. Both opponents face each other silently for one moment.Then as the snake crawls forward, a javelin flashes through the air past Calathra's head and a sling bullet hits Shanna's hand as she attempts to push it aside in mid-air. The viper springs and sinks its teeth into the injured hand. Shanna gasps in pain; but at the same time, in a sudden vicious movement she clenches her hand. Calathra's serpent is crushed between her fingers. "Calbaris!" the halfling shrieks. She hurls another sling stone, but the monk appears almost to anticipate the bullet at it flies, bringing a hand up to knock it aside. Shanna Romm casts her last javelin. It tears through Calathra's now-weakened shield and grazes her arm. Grim and battered, the two opponents charge forward for one last confrontation; but Shanna is weaker. As they collide in the center of the arena Calathra slashes deep with her sickle-blade, and Shanna falls.

Calathra, another victory for you, though you must pay for the raising of your animal companion if you so desire.